Westmoreland Heritage Trail
The Westmoreland Heritage Trail is a partially completed rail trail in southwestern Pennsylvania. As of 2019, 18.0 miles of the 21.9 planned miles of trail are complete, including an 8.7 mile section from Saltsburg to the fringe of Delmont as well as a 9.3 mile section from Trafford to Export.
The (approximate) site where the Haymaker brothers struck natural gas in Murrysville, PA on November 3, 1878
The Westmoreland Heritage Trail in B-Y Park; Trafford, PA
The WHT crosses over the Conemaugh River and under Rt 981 in Loyalhanna Township, PA
The Westmoreland Heritage Trail (left) meets the West Penn Trail in Saltsburg, PA
Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad
The Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad was a short line freight railroad that operated in western Pennsylvania between the boroughs of Export and Trafford, where it connected to the Pittsburgh Line. The TCKR was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dura-Bond Corporation, a steel products company headquartered in Export. The company purchased the railroad from Conrail in 1982. For the next 27 years, three to five trains per week made the round trip along just over ten miles (16 km) of track, delivering materials such as steel pipe to the shortline's parent company in Export and lumber to lumber yards in neighboring Murrysville. In the shortline's heyday, trains of typically about four cars in length were hauled by one of the railroad's two 1940s era switch engines, operated by a two-man crew. The railroad was in service until 2009, when flash flooding of Turtle Creek severely damaged the TCKR's tracks which ran adjacent to the stream. After cessation of service, most of the right-of-way was sold to Westmoreland County to become part of the Westmoreland Heritage Trail.
Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad locomotive #550 in Export, PA
The Dura-Bond steel pipe coating company adjacent to the track of the TCKR in Export, PA (note: the flood protection channel in this photo was not constructed until after the railroad had ceased operations)
The siding in Trafford, PA where trains were exchanged between TCKR locomotives and those of Conrail and its successor Norfolk Southern
A PRR-standard TCKR milepost next to the former railroad, now part of the Westmoreland Heritage Trail